The present invention relates to a network order system used to place an order for a photograph print and the like using a communication network such as the Internet, and to a network server constituting the network order system.
As a result of prevalence of a communication network such as the Internet, selling of products, delivery of information for sales promotion, and the like on the Internet have become popular at present.
As a business style using the Internet, there is a business style that provides various services by a certain shop or company uniquely opening a web site (e.g., homepage) which serves as an online shop (window for the shop), and uniquely managing customer information of the web site. In addition, there is also a business style in which operation of a site, management of customer information, and the like are entrusted to a site operator, and a single web site is shared by a plurality of shops.
For example, JP 2004-133874 A discloses a site operation system in which each shop member can send advertisement information input from a cellular phone or the like to customer members of his/her own shop through mails. This system is realized by the plurality of shops (shop members) sharing a web site opened by the site operator and registering information on each shop in a database of the web site, as well as registering information of a customer (customer member), such as a mail address, of each shop in advance and using a mail server of the web site, to thereby send the advertisement information.
As described above, because the site operation and the management of customer information are entrusted to the site operator, each shop does not need to have its own appliances such as a server. Further, customer information of each shop can be registered and managed without any task load of the site operation, and advertisement information can be delivered to own customers.
On the other hand, services on photograph prints using image data and the like obtained by photographing with a digital camera are also provided on the Internet. A plurality of print service providers acquire images photographed with a digital camera by a customer and printing order information using the communication network such as the Internet, and creates a photograph print by reproducing the image according to the order information. After that, the print for which an order has been placed is provided to the customer through delivery service or by sending the print to a designated shop. Thus, a so-called network print service is provided.
Incidentally, in Europe, a number of retailer shop-scale print service providers of a so-called mini lab shop (hereinafter, referred to as “lab”) for creating prints is small, and many of the prints are created in large-scale labs (so-called big lab) having high productivity.
Further, in Europe, there exist brokers for mediating between a customer and a lab, called retailers, in most cases.
The retailer entrusts retailer shops such as cosmetic shops and drugstores with installment of a reception window for print orders, and a customer orders a print to the retailer through the reception window. The lab is generally affiliated with a plurality of retailers and creates a print upon reception of a print order of a customer from any of the retailers. Provision of the print created in the lab to the customer is also carried out via the retailer in most cases.
In other words, in the print order/creation/reception system, the lab exists as a background without the customer being aware of its existence. The customer only confronts the retailer to order a print and receive the finished print.
Even in Europe having the business style described above as a mainstream, as a result of prevalence of digital cameras and communication networks, provision of a print order receiving service (network print service described above) using the communication network is being studied. In addition, system development of software among affiliated labs and retailers is being advanced and network print services are starting to be established in countries of Europe.
In the above-mentioned system in which orders made to the plurality of retailers are processed in the large-scale lab and the like, the lab needs to aggregate pieces of order information from all the retailers and information on customers having placed orders for creation of prints in order to create the prints according to the orders and provide the created prints.
Further, as for the retailer, there is conventionally a retailer that uniquely manages customers who have used the own shop, and a retailer that does not perform any particular management. Thus, it is assumed that there will be various demands for customer management for each of the retailers even after shifting to the network print service.
However, a system that can satisfy a request of the lab and various requests of the retailers in managing customer information and order information has not yet been achieved.
For example, as described with reference to JP 2004-133874 A, there is known a method of managing customer information of a plurality of shops in a single web site. However, with the conventional technique of JP 2004-133874 A, the single web site is merely shared by the plurality of shops independent in terms of business, and customer information of each shop is merely held separately in a region of each shop secured in the database of the web site. Therefore, the conventional technique cannot be applied to the style in which orders made to the plurality of retailers are aggregated to be processed.